Debian for Bifferboard

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

Hi guys,

This message targets all Debian/Ubuntu lovers. I've written a few
articles about Debian/Linux and Bifferboard, here are the two most
important ones:
* Qemu .deb package for the RDC Bifferboard hardware (http://
blog.famzah.net/2009/11/10/qemu-deb-package-for-the-rdc-bifferboard-
hardware/)
* Running/Installing Debian on Bifferboard (http://blog.famzah.net/
2009/11/20/running-debian-on-bifferboard/)

Sorry if this comes as spam for some of you...

Enjoy Bifferboard and Debian!

Best regards,
Ivan

[Sunspot]

Many thanks - seems to be almost a "do this then this" distro for the
board for users who are not Linux developers.
I question - what would need to be done to enable an i2c bus on GPIO?

On Nov 20, 7:22 am, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>
wrote:

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Nov 20, 7:22 am, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>
wrote:

> * Qemu .deb package for the RDC Bifferboard hardware (http://
> blog.famzah.net/2009/11/10/qemu-deb-package-for-the-rdc-bifferboard-
> hardware/)
> * Running/Installing Debian on Bifferboard (http://blog.famzah.net/
> 2009/11/20/running-debian-on-bifferboard/)

Cool!

You also get bonus points for adding links to your pages from the
wiki :-).

many thanks,
Biff.

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

@Biff: Yes, all announces were done by the book ;)

@Sunspot: Probably Biff can help you out on the i2c bus question. I
haven't used i2c yet, and the only info I found was at
http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/s3282-kernel-issues. As
far as the .deb Linux kernel build is concerned, it is compiled with
Biff's patch and the necessary modules, but one never knows if all is
set up correctly until they see it working...

Cheers.
--Ivan

[Sunspot]

IT RUNS!!! - thanks again - but as a non-Linux-expert it took a lot of
Googling...
(I would like to build up a fully loaded "distro" for "the rest of
us" from this and post it on Skydrive if that's OK (?)
but I may need some help.)

First - can you do a chroot to the stick on a regular Ubuntu PC and
then apt-get and also compile from source? - and then use the stick
directly on the BB?
That might be a fast way of doing big compiles - I need Blassic bassic
for most of my projects and that took 5 hours on NSLU2/Slug

I see you give us ssh and secure ftp "out of the box"
What else is in there?

I also need a fixed web address but I guess that is an "exercise for
the reader"

I noticed at boot that it configures Swap - I happened to build a swap
partition onto the stick in readiness.
Will it be using that or a file on the main partition?

Any comments on how long a USB Flash stick will last with Swap
running?

I am sure that a Debian fully loaded distro will sell lots of B boards
to electronic hobby types - we are not all Linux gods!

On Nov 20, 7:22 am, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>
wrote:

[M P]

Well from my last experience (emdebian on the mini2440) debian just no
longer reliably runs in 32MB -- it already has to swap heavily as soon
as you "apt" for one thing, and that was on a 64MB machine!

You can use a network block device as swap, but that becomes a bit
silly at that rate :-)

Michael

> --
> You received this because you are subscribed to the "Bifferboard" Google group - honest!
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bifferboard...@googlegroups.com

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Nov 22, 12:05 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:
> First - can you do a chroot to the stick on a regular Ubuntu PC and
> then apt-get and also compile from source? - and then use the stick
> directly on the BB?

I don't trust chroot systems, and instead rely on VirtualBox for this
kind of thing. For Slackware at least, you can tell VirtualBox to
connect to the Slackware DVD, plug in the USB storage, boot using the
kernel off the DVD, and the filesystem on the USB device (Slackware
helpfully tells you what to do to achieve this when you boot).

My compiles are obviously slower than running native, but half-native
Pentium M 1.7GHz speed is a lot better than Bifferboard speed, and I
get the benefit of more ram.

regards,
Biff.

[Andrew Scheller]

> then apt-get and also compile from source? - and then use the stick
> directly on the BB?
> That might be a fast way of doing big compiles - I need Blassic bassic
> for most of my projects and that took 5 hours on NSLU2/Slug

Why not just install the binary package?
http://kyle4jesus.posterous.com/blassic-the-classic-basic-packaged-for-ubuntu

Lurch

[Sunspot]

Only just seen the Ubuntu link above - thanks - but meanwhile -

I tried to compile Blassic and failed but then I downloaded
Blassic_0.8.1-1_i386.deb from http://blassic.org/.
Not sure how you use .deb on BB so uncompressed in the Ubuntu GUI and
found the Blassic binary buried in there.
Put that onto my BB but it complained so I had to do -
apt-get install libstdc++5

Then it ran!!

BB with basic!
What more can life offer?

> Why not just install the binary package?http://kyle4jesus.posterous.com/blassic-the-classic-basic-packaged-fo...
>
> Lurch

[Sunspot]

I tried the downloads from
http://kyle4jesus.posterous.com/blassic-the-classic-basic-packaged-for-ubuntu
hoping 10.2 might offer something extra but got
./blassic: cannot execute binary file

On Nov 22, 4:33 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:
> Only just seen the Ubuntu link above - thanks  - but meanwhile -
>
> I tried to compile Blassic and failed but then I downloaded

> Blassic_0.8.1-1_i386.deb fromhttp://blassic.org/.

[IraqiGeek]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sunspot
> Sent: 22 November 2009 16:33
> To: Bifferboard
> Subject: [bifferboard] Re: Debian for Bifferboard
>
>
> BB with basic!
> What more can life offer?
>

Mono? :p

[Sunspot]

If you want to
apt-get install mjpg-streamer
on Debian BB read this

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=13624

It works for my HD Quickcam 9000 but with a very slow update speed as
compared to OpenWrt on BB

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

Sorry for the late reply.

On Nov 22, 2:05 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:
> First - can you do a chroot to the stick on a regular Ubuntu PC and
> then apt-get and also compile from source? - and then use the stick
> directly on the BB?

Yes and only if your system is running a 32-bit installation. Note
that you have to mount at least "proc" on the chroot system though.
You will find an example on how to properly chroot at the following
article:
http://blog.famzah.net/2009/11/18/debian-rootfs-installation-customized-for-bifferboard/

> I see you give us ssh and secure ftp "out of the box"
> What else is in there?

This is a base system. Everyone can install whatever they need. It's a
simple matter of "apt-get".

> I noticed at boot that it configures Swap - I happened to build a swap
> partition onto the stick in readiness.
> Will it be using that or a file on the main partition?

The swap thing is kind of a misunderstanding on my side. I though the
I/O would be much faster and we can use a swap partition/file, but my
current tests show a write rate of about 2.5 MB/s (far below the
maximum for the medium I'm using which is 13.3 MB/s). I haven't done
enough tests but I'm currently working on this. And I will probably
remove the swap option from the kernel, it does not seem to be viable.

> Any comments on how long a USB Flash stick will last with Swap
> running?

Google for this. But as I already mentioned - the swap support will
probably be disabled.

> I am sure that a Debian fully loaded distro will sell lots of B boards
> to electronic hobby types - we are not all Linux gods!

Once again, you can easily install whatever you need by "apt-get". You
can also try "debif" (http://blog.bashroom.com/2009/10/18/debif-v01-
debian-for-the-bifferboard/).

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

On Nov 22, 2:14 pm, M P <buser...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well from my last experience (emdebian on the mini2440) debian just no
> longer reliably runs in 32MB -- it already has to swap heavily as soon
> as you "apt" for one thing, and that was on a 64MB machine!

My current Debian installation on Bifferboard shows 25120 kbytes free
(out of 29892 total). And there are udevd, dhclient3, rsyslog, sshd,
cron, 2x getty, one SSH session running. You surely cannot start heavy
processes on the system and expect it to behave like a dedicated
server.
This is not why I chose Debian and Bifferboard - I chose them because
I can develop and test my (tiny) scripts/programs on my desktop
system, and transfer them very easily to Bifferboard later. This would
speed up and ease my development like hundred times.
Until now I've developed on PIC16F877 with 368 bytes (yes, bytes) RAM
and about 14k Flash memory. Well, Bifferboard as a controller for non-
real-time systems is a hugh step ahead. But that's just my thoughts,
you are free to not agree with them :)

[Jason]

Ivan ... similar here to, I use Gentoo from desktop to device
(although using a heavy weight desktop/server profile vs a embedded
device profile) and this works well. But the choice of package
installed makes a difference - for example earlier on playing with the
Bifferboard I ported a network USB hub package but this consumed too
much memory to be used on a practical basis within 32MB (and employing
swap would kill the flash memory).

On Nov 24, 6:19 am, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>
wrote:

[Sunspot]

I am trying to get sound going and did all I did here for Debian on
NSLU2/Slug
http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/SWEEX/slug/Sound/sound.html

But it does not recognise the USB sound dongle.
Would that be because the kernel lacks something? I thought Alsa Utils
pulled in the driver....?

On Nov 24, 6:11 am, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>
wrote:

> Sorry for the late reply.
>
> On Nov 22, 2:05 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:> First - can you do a chroot to the stick on a regular Ubuntu PC and
> > then apt-get and also compile from source? - and then use the stick
> > directly on the BB?
>
> Yes and only if your system is running a 32-bit installation. Note
> that you have to mount at least "proc" on the chroot system though.
> You will find an example on how to properly chroot at the following

> article:http://blog.famzah.net/2009/11/18/debian-rootfs-installation-customiz...

[Sunspot]

In case anyone can help I get this - Slug did all that and played OK

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
bifferboard_9:~# lsmod
Module Size Used by
snd_usb_audio 43536 0
snd_pcm 31116 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_page_alloc 4192 1 snd_pcm
snd_usb_lib 8340 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_seq_midi 2784 0
snd_seq_midi_event 2628 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi 9820 2 snd_usb_lib,snd_seq_midi
snd_hwdep 3152 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_seq 24608 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
evdev 4824 0
snd_timer 10004 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
evbug 1140 0
snd_seq_device 2912 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 25240 7
snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_hwdep,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 2200 1 snd
usbkbd 3060 0
usbhid 9452 0
hid 24484 1 usbhid
------
bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound# ls
CLANG.wav DITDAT.wav Lace.mp3 alarm1.wav
bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound# madplay Lace.mp3
MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.2 (beta) - Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Robert
Leslie et al.
audio: /dev/dsp: No such file or directory
bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound#

On Nov 24, 7:46 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:
> I am trying to get sound going and did all I did here for Debian on

> NSLU2/Slughttp://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/SWEEX/slug/Sound/sound.html

[Steven Moughan]

Hi there, keep in mind I'm very noobish when it comes to this but
assuming the driver and device is initialized correctly you should be
able to use mknod to create the missing node in /dev using the command
mknod /dev/dsp c <major id> <minor id>

Again, not exactly sure but that's the first thing that came to mind
for me...

Thanks,
Steven

Sent from my mobile device.

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

That should be created automatically if udevd is running. On my first
attempts at installing a Slackware system I had to disable udevd
because it gave a bunch of errors on startup. This was because /dev
was using tmpfs (basically virtual memory), and my system was running
out of memory when it booted, even though I had swap.

I later discovered Slackware starts udevd before enabling swap, and
that causes the problem - basically Slackware + udevd cannot run on
any 32MB system due to this oversight. Maybe I should report this to
the maintainers....

Now I start udevd later in the boot process (and stop it using tmpfs
as well) and everything works OK. So instead of manually creating the
node, run udevd so it gets created automatically. This also has the
effect of telling you if the device is valid or not right from the
start (it won't get created if it's not there), which is far better
than interpreting the messages from <insert-audio-application-here>

Just as an aside, I don't see any mixer module, but perhaps that's no
longer needed these days.

Biff.

On Nov 24, 10:43 pm, Steven Moughan <smoug...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there, keep in mind I'm very noobish when it comes to this but  
> assuming the driver and device is initialized correctly you should be  
> able to use mknod to create the missing node in /dev using the command  
> mknod /dev/dsp c <major id> <minor id>
>
> Again, not exactly sure but that's the first thing that came to mind  
> for me...
>
> Thanks,
> Steven
>
> Sent from my mobile device.
>

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

@Sunspot: Can you please run "ls -la /dev/snd*" and paste the output
here. Also please try to install the package "sox" and try to play the
WAV file by executing "play Lace.mp3" (just "play", not "madplay").

[Sunspot]

Thanks - here it is

bifferboard_9:~# ls -la /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 7 04:02 .
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 2540 Aug 7 05:51 ..
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 0 Aug 7 04:02 controlC0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 24 Aug 7 04:02 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 1 Aug 7 04:02 seq
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 33 Aug 7 04:02 timer
bifferboard_9:~#

------------------------------------------------------------------------
BTW
I loaded mjpg-streamer from the SVN and it is now just as fast as it
was in OpenWrt so ignore the apt-get in my earlier post.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALSO
I also have Blassic 10.2 (the latest) running after a compile in
chroot on my Linux copy of the file system worked.
(It would not work on the BB - memory problem?)
I think a real fully loaded distro for us soldering iron pushers is
possible if sound/i2c/WIFI dongle all work in the end.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALSO
I tried
bifferboard_9:~# modprobe i2c-gpio-custom bus0=0,12,9
FATAL: Module i2c_gpio_custom not found.
Not sure what to do next for that - I saw reference to i2c and 1-wire
in the boot messages.


On Nov 25, 5:05 pm, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Nov 25, 5:26 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:
> ALSO
> I tried
> bifferboard_9:~# modprobe i2c-gpio-custom bus0=0,12,9
> FATAL: Module i2c_gpio_custom not found.
> Not sure what to do next for that - I saw reference to i2c and 1-wire
> in the boot messages.

This only works if the i2c stuff is compiled as modules. It sounds
like you're using a kernel with them built in, in which case you need
to specify this on the kernel command-line by adding:

i2c-gpio-custom.bus0=0,12,9

[Sunspot]

sox was installed
I saw
bifferboard_9:~# cd /home/graham/sound

bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound# ls
CLANG.wav DITDAT.wav Lace.mp3 alarm1.wav

bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound# play Lace.mp3
play soxio: Can't open input file `Lace.mp3': unknown file type `mp3'
bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound# play alarm1.wav
[ 276.411764] cannot submit datapipe for urb 0, error -28: not enough
bandwidth
ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:975:(snd1_pcm_direct_initialize_slave) unable to
install hw params
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1008:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to initialize
slave
play soxio: Can't open output file `default': cannot open audio device
bifferboard_9:/home/graham/sound#

These were in the boot messages

hostname: the specified hostname is invalid
.udev/ already exists on the static /dev! (warning).
Starting the hotplug events dispatcher: udevd.
Synthesizing the initial hotplug events...done.
Waiting for /dev to be fully populated...[ 75.948340] input: USB
AUDIO as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.1/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.3/
input/input0
[ 75.955800] generic-usb 0003:1130:F211.0001: input: USB HID v1.10
Device [USB AUDIO ] on usb-0000:00:0a.1-1.3/input3
[ 76.120346] input: USB AUDIO as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.1/
usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.4/input/input1
[ 76.126781] generic-usb 0003:1130:F211.0002: input: USB HID v1.10
Device [USB AUDIO ] on usb-0000:00:0a.1-1.3/input4
[ 76.129438] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 76.135105] usbhid: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[ 77.552428] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[ 78.092458] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbkbd
[ 78.098899] usbkbd: :USB HID Boot Protocol keyboard driver
[ 78.928506] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (046d:0990)
[ 79.912560] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 79.919249] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)
[ 111.191984] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
done.

Setting up ALSA...warning: 'alsactl restore' failed with error message
'No state is present for card default'...done.

On Nov 25, 5:26 pm, Sunspot <fgmarsh...@sunspot.co.uk> wrote:

[Sunspot]

Sorry to appear so slow -

"specify this on the kernel command-line by adding:

i2c-gpio-custom.bus0=0,12,9 " ?

I have read all the readmes and searched the wiki
- many references to "specify this on the kernel command-line" - but
when/how do you actually do that?

My
python bb_upload.py /dev/ttyUSB0
does not seem to offer such an option.
( I am using the famzah download) that started this thread.

On Nov 25, 5:32 pm, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

Newer bootloaders allow you to set the command-line from the
bootloader. You've got an older bootloader, so you have to hard-code
it into the kernel itself. This used to be rather complicated,
because it needed a kernel patch, but now it's just another kernel
option.

There are various people experimenting with Debian, but I'm afraid I
haven't looked at their work. I can only say that you (or they) will
have to do the same thing in Debian as I have done in Slackware, in
order that people like yourself with older versions of the bootloader
don't have to keep re-compiling the kernel to connect new hardware, or
change i2c pins etc...

I guess you could 'steal' kernel + modules from the slackware rootfs,
and probably use them with Debian. I'm not sure. Or you could just
use the Slackware rootfs. It doesn't have the i2c-tools, but they can
be downloaded from here::

http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/howto/faster-route-to-kernel--initrd

regards,
Biff.

[Sunspot]

Ahh soh...
thanks
Guess I may jump ship to test Slackware for a while as I must get i2c.
(BTW Openwrt needs no Swap, runs HD webcams and if i2c (and Blassic
basic) worked there it would be the best hobby robot platform)

On Nov 25, 7:52 pm, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

> Newer bootloaders allow you to set the command-line from the
> bootloader.  You've got an older bootloader, so you have to hard-code
> it into the kernel itself.  This used to be rather complicated,
> because it needed a kernel patch, but now it's just another kernel
> option.
>
> There are various people experimenting with Debian, but I'm afraid I
> haven't looked at their work.  I can only say that you (or they) will
> have to do the same thing in Debian as I have done in Slackware, in
> order that people like yourself with older versions of the bootloader
> don't have to keep re-compiling the kernel to connect new hardware, or
> change i2c pins etc...
>
> I guess you could 'steal' kernel + modules from the slackware rootfs,
> and probably use them with Debian.  I'm not sure.  Or you could just
> use the Slackware rootfs.  It doesn't have the i2c-tools, but they can
> be downloaded from here::
>

> http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/howto/faster-route-to-k...

[Andrew Scheller]

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but why do you keep insisting on
blassic, rather than something like python?

Lurch

[Sunspot]

Why basic?
I seem to be representing a potential (large!) market for the BB that
consists of hardware hobby types that read Elektor and similar
magazines.
Many such people see my back-up project notes on my site
http://www.sunspot.co.uk and email me.
They tend to build projects from the magazine and websites and lots of
them (like me) have a long time relationship with basic (and visual
basic) and just a touch of C code knowledge.
Mastering a tool chain just to make your robot go is a step too far.

This forum is great fun for Linux developers many of whom get there
kicks from staying at the bleeding edge and never see the need to make
hardware projects.
Keep it up! - but remember the huge number of possible BB users who
just want to use it as a tool.

It's like the Mac user ("the rest of us") who *never* sees a command
line but just uses the applications.
Or the car driver who just wants it to get them there in comfort and
style and does not care if it is diesel or petrol.

Ubuntu is (slowly becoming) Linux for such people.
In the same way I think BB needs a fully loaded distro that "just
runs"

(perhaps with a really simple config program - [on a web page?])

================================================

- but I may learn Python - if only for the jokes...

On Nov 25, 11:13 pm, Andrew Scheller <ya...@loowis.durge.org> wrote:
> Sorry if it's a stupid question, but why do you keep insisting on
> blassic, rather than something like python?
>
> Lurch
>

[Steven Moughan]

Hello World,

Just as a note for the configuration, has anyone considered UCI? The
universal configuration interface? It is the same configuration tool
that OpenWRT uses, very easy to use and very powerful at the same
time. I currently have a project in the works for my home cinema which
will incorporate developing a customized distribution for the BB - I
will be aiming to use UCI for this.

I have a link for the main project page somewhere... however for now
here is a very simple introduction to it
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=12040 - and here is a more
comprehensive set of instructions
http://wiki.x-wrt.org/index.php/Programmer's_Guide_to_the_Webif#Using_the_UCI_shell_function_interface

It is available as a downloadable package, somewhere, I'll post the
links at another time when I dig them up again.

@Sunspot: Is the bifferboard really suitable for a robot? I mean it
has enough horsepower and plenty of RAM for most uses, but its a bit
thin on GPIO ... I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with and
if your still interested in the distro for a BB, let me know as I may
be able to incorporate some of your requirements into the distribution
I am working on...

Thanks,
Steven

--
Chief Geek,
http://hackdev.com

[Michel Pollet]

For easy extra gpios you can use any of the ftdi usb ICs - the bitbang
modes are excellent - I do all kind of things with them, uncluding
spi, i2c and such.

Very easy to put on a pcb too the latest ones just need a couple of
resistors and caps.

Michael

[Sunspot]

Stephen,

It is the web connection and webcam I use the NSLU2/Slug for - then
for IO I use i2c.

But a PIC 16F877A can be used in i2c slave mode and drive RS232 and
run a graphic display and has 10 bit A to D.
Since I can't yet run i2c on Openwrt I am playing with Debian and
perhaps Slackware.
Oshonsoft basic makes the PIC so easy (but not for slave mode - that
needs CCS C if you program C by cut, paste and pray)

But I may just feed the PIC via RS232 on Openwrt BB since there is no
Swap partition to kill the USB flash.
I wonder about the same but with a MMC card booting Openwrt (???) -
then just use a webcam and no hub
Unless I can get USB WIFI to work - there are so many ifs and buts,
but 1 Watt is the attraction for mobile/portable.

My other main real application is my Midge Sweex router in the kitchen
that beeps if someone wants us on Skype - that also monitors bee hives
(for swarming) and my greenhouse (all i2c). It has an i2c graphic
display.
That is rock solid with very old Linux (but why not !!??)

The Slug at present monitors a new solar hot water system on the roof.
Also all i2c.

Debian has so many things to apt-get !!

On Nov 26, 10:28 am, Steven Moughan <smoug...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello World,
>
> Just as a note for the configuration, has anyone considered UCI? The
> universal configuration interface? It is the same configuration tool
> that OpenWRT uses, very easy to use and very powerful at the same
> time. I currently have a project in the works for my home cinema which
> will incorporate developing a customized distribution for the BB - I
> will be aiming to use UCI for this.
>
> I have a link for the main project page somewhere... however for now

> here is a very simple introduction to ithttps://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=12040- and here is a more
> comprehensive set of instructionshttp://wiki.x-wrt.org/index.php/Programmer's_Guide_to_the_Webif#Using...

[d1savowed]

A quick update for any debian lovers out there...

I took the code that famzah had created and modified it a bit, and the
end result is two sets of scripts that can be used to create
everything you need for a bifferboard (if your using a USB root etc).
The first one builds the kernel including the application of patches
(taken from biff's slackware folder in SVN, and a new PIT patch for
2.6.32). It then creates the associated deb files for you.

The second one uses debootstrap to create you a new rootfs, along with
making certain modifications to make things run smoother. I still need
to get the clock/fsck issue sorted but that shouldn't hopefully take
too long. I've tested both scripts here and use them quite regulary to
build the systems for my board. It may still destroy your system
however, so use at your own risk.

I've chucked them on my website but if Biff is happy I will gladly
push the files into SVN so that they are available for all. Hopefully
it makes things a little easier for those of us using debian on the
bifferboards. Note: You probably want to change the kernel config etc
to suit your needs. As I only need USB support for the initial boot,
and don't run my board off an SD/MMC card, I don't include them by
default. I have however included nearly every other driver as a
module, so support for wireless adapters etc should be there.

http://www.linux-depot.com/?p=projects&s=bifferboard

If you use it, let me know how you get on :-)

Stu

[Nelson Neves]

Hi Stu,

thanks for getting Debian tunned up for bifferboard! I'm a bit busy at the moment, but trying to get back to my bifferboard testing real soon, and hope to test your stuff (Jan/Feb).

Regards,
Nelson.

[d1savowed]

Hi Nelson,
That's cool. Hopefully it should be pretty stable and given it has
Biff's slackware patches as well as the PIT timer patch it should work
fine. I haven't got anything GPIO/SPI based to test with (as all my
kit is USB) so I would welcome anyone giving it a go. I will be
testing a wifi dongle with it shortly and hopefully will have one
running as a mini home automation hub (if all goes well).

Biff.. is there a new version of the bb_upload.py around that allows
us to upload more than the ~980K limit on 8MB boards? I did notice one
in the SVN repo but that was for Ethernet and seemed to mention
needing bootloader 2.7 or above :S I only have 2.5, so does this mean
my 8MB board is going to waste :'(

Stu

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Dec 27, 11:37 pm, d1savowed <stu...@linux-depot.com> wrote:
> Biff.. is there a new version of the bb_upload.py around that allows
> us to upload more than the ~980K limit on 8MB boards? I did notice one
> in the SVN repo but that was for Ethernet and seemed to mention
> needing bootloader 2.7 or above :S I only have 2.5, so does this mean
> my 8MB board is going to waste :'(

Only a handful of people (about 15?) have a board >1MB with bootloader
< 2.7 so the instructions disregarded them. The new script should
work fine for you.

regards,
Biff.

[d1savowed]

On Dec 28, 12:54 am, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

That's good to know and I will give it a try as soon as. Question
though.. does that only cover the ethernet flasher, or is the serial
one edited as well? I use the RS232 to upload the new kernels, so im
wondering if I will need to move over to the Ethernet uploader.

Stu

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

I guess the serial one can be changed to also work, however I couldn't
see why anyone would want to send a large kernel via the serial port.

[d1savowed]

Biff,
Guess i'm just awkward ;)

Stu

[Michel Pollet]

Me me me me - the Ethernet script still doesn't work for me :/

Dedian sid python, gigabit network switch. The script never links to
the board.
I've been using the slow serial one

Michael

On 28 Dec 2009, at 01:27, "biff...@yahoo.co.uk"
<biff...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

Can you run tcpdump on the Bifferboard, then run the upload script, to
see if the packets are making it across the switch to the BB? Either
that is failing, or the response packet - it would help to know which.

On Dec 28, 11:13 am, Michel Pollet <buser...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Me me me me - the Ethernet script still doesn't work for me :/
>
> Dedian sid python, gigabit network switch. The script never links to  
> the board.
> I've been using the slow serial one
>
> Michael
>

> On 28 Dec 2009, at 01:27, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk"  

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

Stu,

I have the following comments for you:
1) Congrats for the work done and for sharing it with us.
2) It's not the open-source way to just fork a project without even
trying to cooperate with the developers of the currently existing
project. With this situation now, we will need to put double efforts,
in order to maintain a set of scripts which practically do the same.
I'm not trying to start a flame-war now, so don't react to this too
hard, I'm perfectly fine with your decision.
3) There is a typo in my name. Please do a "grep -iR Zaharoev *" and
replace it with "Zahariev". Thanks.

Happy holidays to all you guys!
--famzah

[Ivan Zahariev (famzah)]

P.S. I've added a link to your site at the Bifferboard's Wiki (Home‎ >
‎'Desktop' Linux Distributions‎ > Debian).

[d1savowed]

famzah,
1. Thanks :-)
2. I work on many open-source projects and while I agree there is
communication between people involved, your script didn't seem to be a
fully-fledged project, just a just a single script and a set of
instructions. If it had been hosted on Biff's SVN, I would have
handled it differently. My apologies for not contacting you
beforehand. I'm quite happy to merge both sets of scripts and work on
it jointly :-)
3. Apologies for that, I've now gone through and re-saved the
tarballs with the corrected name
4. Thanks :-) I was waiting for Biff to give me the go-ahead for
that

In truth I didn't plan to release the scripts as it was just a quick
knockup I did based on your instructions, with some fixes so it
behaved better on my system. Once I had it running and behaving itself
I thought it might be of use to more people out there. That said,
there is nothing stopping it going into the SVN and being worked on
jointly for the benefit of everyone out there :-)

Stu

On Dec 29, 2:00 am, "Ivan Zahariev (famzah)" <fam...@famzah.net>
wrote:

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

I've just made Ivan a 'release technician' so he can now upload
files). If you want to put this in SVN please add a new directory
under 'bifferboard' e.g.

http://bifferboard.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/bifferboard/debian

I suggest we put the 'one true' set of scripts here to avoid
duplication of effort. Stuff probably needs to be re-arranged so that
the kernel patches are common to all these build scripts, including
the slackware system, but for now it's no big deal to fork these into
the Debian directory if you want.

many thanks for your contributions,
Biff.

[Sunspot]

Thanks to help from d1savowed and famzah I have a working Debian on
Bifferboard system.

I have -
i2c writing and now reading
WIFI
A Logitech Quickcam 9000 HD webcam
A web server
An sftp server
A USB sound dongle
ssh terminal
C compile on the board
Python
Perl
and my favourite Blassic basic
For people who do not want to fight Linux but want to web enable a PIC/
i2c hardware project I have put up this experimental "distro".
"Load it, run it" - like you do with Ubuntu

My notes are at
http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/Bifferboard/Debian_distro.html

It is not yet perfect but it does a good job for me.
Thanks again to all here.

On Dec 27 2009, 10:04 pm, d1savowed <stu...@linux-depot.com> wrote:
> A quick update for anydebianlovers out there...

>
> I took the code that famzah had created and modified it a bit, and the
> end result is two sets of scripts that can be used to create
> everything you need for a bifferboard (if your using a USB root etc).
> The first one builds the kernel including the application of patches
> (taken from biff's slackware folder in SVN, and a new PIT patch for
> 2.6.32). It then creates the associated deb files for you.
>
> The second one uses debootstrap to create you a new rootfs, along with
> making certain modifications to make things run smoother. I still need
> to get the clock/fsck issue sorted but that shouldn't hopefully take
> too long. I've tested both scripts here and use them quite regulary to
> build the systems for my board. It may still destroy your system
> however, so use at your own risk.
>
> I've chucked them on my website but if Biff is happy I will gladly
> push the files into SVN so that they are available for all. Hopefully

> it makes things a little easier for those of us usingdebianon the